Author's Notes

‘Welcome to the Hotel Bristol!’ The car attendant opens the door. The modern hackney carriage is made of solid metal and the door falls back into the lock with a rich sound. In front of me the Bristol. Across the road the Opera. From the open windows of a répétiteur’s chamber the wind carries strains of La Bohème over the Opernring. Later we will find out that Puccini resided at the Bristol.

The welcome at the reception is the usual warm one, ‘welcome back home!’ – and I am. Next to it the all competent concierge desk – ever since a legend and tradition at this hotel.

Let me tell you more about all these grand traditions at this hotel. Follow me on a journey back to the Vienna of the 1890s. At that time it was the capital of the Austro – Hungarian Empire in the heart of Europe. Amidst a multitude of different nationalities and languages, the Hungarians called Vienna ‘Becs’ and the Czechs called it ‘Viden’. German was the official language from Bregenz in the west to the Russian and Romanian borders in the east, from Prague in the north down to Trieste and Pula – coastal towns on the Adriatic Sea. In 1892 over 41 million people lived within the boundaries of this empire.

On 26 June 1892 Andreas Kührer, owner of two fine Viennese restaurants, opened the Hotel Bristol.

The Hotel Bristol began its career approximately 100 metres from its present location. Over time it expanded, first house by house then block by block until finally in 1916 it included that part in which it is housed today. Gradually the hotel worked its way up to the best address in town: Kärntnerring 1, on the corner of Kärntnerstrasse. This is where the ‘Sirkecke’ used to be, named after a merchant whose shop used to stand here. Today we have a restaurant by this name, commemorating those days.

Let’s dive into the different historical episodes of this old Viennese hotel. It took me two years of research to be able to tell it to you this way. Enter the hotel with its exquisite range of restaurants, its discrete bar and its cosy ambience. You are diving into one of the last remaining secret meeting places of this formerly so grand and glorious empire, today one of the most efficiently run republics in the world.

The Bristol is one of the secret switchboards of the country. Political decisions are made in the hidden away meeting rooms under its roof, deals are sealed at its discrete bar, cultural sensations revealed in its oval lobby, books written in silent rooms, films made under its original Art Deco staircase and food – oh my God, what exquisite food – cooked in the two separate and each so wonderful kitchens. After you Madam, or maybe the gentleman would like to take the first step onto the next pages, back to the year 1892.

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